In a country where formerly no ships large enough to make long voyages were allowed to be made, steamship companies are now flourishing. The _Ōsaka Shōsen Kwaisha_ (Osaka Merchant Marine Company) is a very large and prosperous corporation, whose business is chiefly coasting trade, but which also runs to Formosa, the Ryūkyū Islands, the Bonin Islands, Korea, China, and America. The largest steamship company in Japan, and one of the largest in the world, is the _Nippon Yūsen Kwaisha_ (Japan Mail Steamship Company). It has a fleet of 88 vessels with 300,000 tons; and maintains not only a frequent coasting service, but also several foreign lines, to Siberia, Korea, China, India, Australia, Europe, and America. This is the line which runs fortnightly from Seattle to Hongkong with excellent passenger accommodations. The _Tōyō Kisen Kwaisha_ (Oriental Steamship Company) is a Japanese organization with three fine vessels running about once a month from San Francisco to Hawaii, Japan, China, and Manila. The word _Maru_[33] in such combinations as “America Maru” or “Kaga Maru” is a special suffix always attached to the name of a ship. In Old Japan there was no official postal system, and letters were despatched by private messengers and relays of couriers. When Japan was opened to the world, some of the foreign nations represented there maintained special post-offices of their own, but these were gradually abandoned. It was in 1872 that the modern postal system of Japan was organized on American models; and it was only five years later when Japan was admitted to the International Postal Union. The twenty-fifth anniversary of this event was celebrated with great _éclat_ in Tōkyō in 1902. The Japanese postal system has been gradually improved during its quarter-century of existence, so that in some respects it excels its model, the United States postal system, and is really one of the most efficient in the world. It includes registration, money orders, parcel post, reply postal cards, postal savings,[34] and universal free delivery. Letter postage is 3 _sen_ within the empire and 10 _sen_ to all countries of the International Postal Union; postal cards are 1-1/2 and 4 _sen_ respectively. We also beg leave to remind Americans that letter postage to Japan is _not_ 2 cents, but 5 cents, per ounce.